


Color Defect

by SereneSorrow



Series: Colors [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, POV Outsider, POV Urahara Kisuke, Shinichi weekend 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23343445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: Black and white is the only way to see the living world, whereas the soul society is awash with vibrant color, because soulmates are for the living, but are there exceptions to the rule?
Relationships: Hirako Shinji/Kurosaki Ichigo
Series: Colors [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678906
Comments: 1
Kudos: 134
Collections: ShinIchi Weekend 2020





	Color Defect

**Author's Note:**

> ShinIchi Weekend 2020 – Day 4: Soulmates AU
> 
> I actually wrote this for day 4, but I also wrote a sequel I'll be posting on day 4, so I wanted to spread them out a bit. I suppose this one could be considered for the day 2 prompt if it was switched from 'Didn't know they were dating' to 'Didn't know they were soulmates' :D

“Oi! Kisuke!”

The shout was accompanied by the loud clatter of a door sliding open too quickly and Kisuke looked up from the tea in front of him and around at the former captain of Squad Five who now stood in the doorway. Blinking at Shinji's frown he wondered what could have gone wrong with the man's first meeting with Ichigo. Surely everything at the school should have gone fine, the plan had been straightforward enough, but what else could his problem be...

Shinji threw himself down onto the cushion beside where Kisuke was seated, leaning back against the low table with his elbows propped on it, and looked aside at him.

“This gigai is weird, what's with the delayed reaction?” The Vizard asked.

“Delayed...?” Kisuke wondered aloud, with no idea what the older man was talking about.

“I won't say it isn't a good feature, but if ya' could make gigai's that can see color why didn't ya' say so? It was damn weird suddenly seeing color again in the middle of that classroom. It's hard enough getting used to seeing in black and white once I put on a gigai, but switching back and fourth like this is going to get annoying.” Shinji continued, his words taking Kisuke completely by surprise.

He hadn't made any such thing. A gigai was meant to simulate a living body, and living bodies didn't see color until they met their soulmates, so any soul reaper wearing a gigai was limited to that spectrum as well. Once a person died, whole or plus souls could see color just fine, whereas hollows lost any colors they had found once they formed their mask and hollow hole. Without a heart there was nothing to connect them to their other half, for all intents and purposes they had no soulmate. It was why most hollows were black and white, and those that weren't were such dull and uniform colors. There wasn't anything special about the gigai that Kisuke had made for Shinji, other than the custom look and shape for better comfort.

“I didn't make such a gigai, that gigai is no different from any other. Shinji, are you saying that you met your soulmate?” Kisuke asked slowly, he'd never told the vizard's that Isshin had been soulmates with the Quincy woman, that he had been more attached to her than their plans to create a powerful hybrid soul had necessitated.

It hadn't been important, and it put an entirely different spin on their plans if the former captain of Squad Ten was actually attached to the family they had created for less than loving purposes. Being confined to the gigai Kisuke had given Isshin had bothered the man at first, he hadn't been able to get used to only seeing in black and white, but the second he and the Quincy girl had met again they had both seen colors and come running to him for an explanation. Kisuke was finding himself at the center of a lot of these conversations actually, he had also had to explain to Ichigo why he could see colors when he was outside of his body. It had been troubling the boy for quite some time before he had asked for an explanation, and he had been relieved to know that he would still have the chance to meet his soulmate properly, so long as he was in his living body at the time.

“What? It's impossible for soulmates to find each other after death, that's what reincarnation is for.” Shinji insisted, following the well established principle they were all taught at the academy, if they hadn't heard it elsewhere already.

“Perhaps it would help you to know that soul reapers can have soulmates, and find them in the living world? There is past evidence to prove it.” Kisuke explained, not liking to reveal Isshin's history without their partner in 'crime's' permission.

Shinji stared at him in shock, still slumped back against the table. Then he jerked up and Kisuke let himself be dragged up by the collar and slammed into the nearest wall as Shinji's spirit energy crackled with rage. One of his eyes started turning black, his hollow pushing forward, and Kisuke's mind grimly ran over the necessary kido to contain the man if he couldn't control himself.

“You're lying! That's not possible, it can't be!” Shinji insisted, rage twisting his expression.

“I'm afraid it's the truth, once a plus soul is in a gigai it is capable of meeting a soulmate.” Kisuke spoke mildly, but there was no avoiding the truth. He wondered, though, what part of the whole mess was causing Shinji such a reaction.

“It's not possible, Kisuke! I was looking at the kid when this happened. Ya' can't tell me that _Ichigo_ is my soulmate!” Shinji practically screamed with the way his voice had changed in pitch and gained that hollow screech which was reminiscent of an eagle, really.

Ah.

Kisuke found that he wasn't entirely surprised to hear that actually, now that it had been said. If the boy's mother had been fated to a soul reaper, why not her son as well? Ichigo was, by their own machinations, destined for the world of the dead. It would make sense if fate decided that his partner would then be someone of that world. It wasn't so much of a shock as it should be.

Still, the big picture spun again, putting a once more new spin on Kurosaki Ichigo's role in their lives. 'The Plan', though largely fleshed out by Kisuke himself, was a product of discussion between Kisuke, his dearest friends Yoruichi and Tessai, Shinji and the rest of the Vizards, and Isshin himself once he found himself with no safe way to return to soul society. Shinji was equally guilty of leading the boy to his own eventual maiming, and perhaps even destruction, as the rest of them.

Now that the boy turned out to be his very own soulmate, would Shinji be able to go through with it, as Isshin had? Would he be able to train Ichigo to use his hollow powers and then push the boy out in front of Aizen Sosuke? With no backup and only the most flimsy plan for the villain's destruction?

Kisuke had to hope that Shinji could be so cold after all.

If the boy didn't fight their enemy, the world as they knew it would be forever changed.


End file.
